More on Textiles: "Master of Production," the American Factory Worker of Yore
Posted in: UncategorizedI love ’50s propaganda films, everything from the amusing claims that run counter to our 2011 science, to the contrived lighting, to the soothing, friendly-yet-authoritative tone of the narrators. This 1950s factory seems like a very pleasant place to work, the operative word being “seems:”
This video is a clip from a 1953 documentary called “Greater Goal: Human Dividends from American Industry” (embedded in its entirety below), sponsored by the now-defunct American Textiles Information Service. It looks at America’s post-war textile industry and paints it as “a hotbed of enlightened industrial progress.”
Factory-as-fantasyland footage aside, the entire 20-minute documentary does give an interesting look at the state of the textiles industry 60 years ago, when a variety of fabrics that we now take for granted — velvet, satin, canvas duck — were still wondrous materials. It also glorifies a species now facing extinction: The American Factory Worker, “Master of Production.” I know it’s just a Monday and you’ve got work to do, but do bookmark this page and queue it up for when Friday starts to drag.
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